Meet the Raspberry Pi Creative Technologists

In February Rachel Rayns, our Creative Producer, announced and opened entries for the new Raspberry Pi Creative Technologists mentorship programme. We selected final participants from the applicants at the beginning of this month – we’ve got a wonderful group of young people. Last weekend we held the induction weekend here at Pi Towers in Cambridge, which involved Pecha Kucha presentations (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide) from participants and mentors; introducing the CTs to their new Raspberry Pi starter kits; getting them up and running with their Pis with a Python and GPIO workshop using the CamJam EduKit and the camera module; and a punting trip through the heart of Cambridge. We then took the group on their second field trip – to Newcastle to visit Maker Faire UK and the Baltic Centre. Next up is a trip to Pimoroni‘s workshop for a hack weekend full of laser cutter fun, and we have plenty more in store. Meet the Creative Technologists   Andrew is 18, studying Computer Science at Queen’s University in Belfast. Readers of the blog will be familiar with Andrew as the developer of PiNet – he also runs the Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam. The Creative Technologists are a great bunch – everybody’s very excited, and enthusiastic about life. Through the programme I want to make more interactive stuff people can play with, and learn from.   Bawar is 18, studying Maths, Computer Science and English at a Sixth Form in West London. He found out about the programme the day before entries closed – and stayed up all night making his video (but says it was worth it). I was amazed to find that behind such a big name – Raspberry Pi – there were normal people running it, and I realised we could grow up to do something big like that.   Connor is 19 and works in Operations at Ragworm. With his work he’s exposed to the maker community and regularly attends Maker Faires and hackathons. I want to put everything I can into motion, so those little crazy ideas in my notepad can finally be realised, and shared with the world   Hannah is 20 and studies Creative Writing and Theatre at Lancaster University. She’s been writing stories since she was 6 and has an interest in exploring video game script writing. The world is becoming more technical and I think it’s important to become more innovative when combining technology and creativity.   Javier is 17 and Spanish; he lives and goes to school in Corunna in North West Spain. He his first languages are Spanish and Galacian (he also speaks English better than some of we do), and he’s been programming since he was ten, and he likes to disassemble gadgets. He’s also a fan of dogecoin. I am still a beginner, both in programming and electronics. I would love to learn more and more, so I could bring to life a lot of ideas I have.   Maddy is 17, studying Visual Effects at college in Nottingham. She spent 3 months creating an animated music video for a local band (it’s brilliant). She is constantly dancing. I wasn’t sure whether I should send my application, but hitting that Submit button was the most important click of my life. This one weekend has honestly changed the entire prospects of my career.   Milton is 21, and works as a web developer in London. He loves code and wants to create worlds within worlds. He has a strange obsession with identifying as a dessert. I want to learn electronics and research behavioural psychology and explore how people interact with technology.   Owen is 17, studying Science subjects at college in Lewes. He’s lightning fast with a Rubik’s cube (better than Gordon and me), does magic tricks (all the time) and he wondered if we were looking for people like him… You spend 90% of your time playing with things other people have made – and you have the tools to do it yourself.   Yasmin is 21, and works as a front-end web developer in Devon. She’s a keen and successful Vlogger, a games enthusiast, content creator, storyteller and musician. It was one of the most inspirational weekends I have probably ever had. It’s so true, it was just amazing.   Been great weekend meeting fellow Creative Technologists! Big thanks to @RachelRayns, @ben_nuttall and @Raspberry_Pi! pic.twitter.com/Wz3lOyhkEO — Andrew Mulholland (@gbaman1) April 19, 2015 Yasmin also created this video after the induction weekend – we love it! We’ll be sharing more information about the Creative Technologists as the programme continues and the participants’ projects are developed. It’s a 12-month programme and we intend to run it again next year. Register your interest and we’ll email you when information about the 2016-17 programme is available.

URL: https://www.raspberrypi.org/meet-the-creative-technologists/